The successes and failures of your average girl trying to make a vegan life for herself.

Thursday, September 5, 2013

Tempeh Bacon B.A.T

In an attempt to more closely mimic the excellent sandwich we got at Karma Cafe in New Paltz, Josh picked up this tempeh bacon at the store a while back. He thought it would be a better alternative than the fake bacon we usually use in our B.A.T.'s - of which there have been many in our recent past. The LightLife stuff is, as anyone who has tried it will know, not exactly a good fascimile of "real" bacon - though I'm not sure that's a bad thing. It's got the consistency of brittle cardboard, though the flavor's not too bad. But still, there's definitely room for improvement.

Unfortunately the tempeh bacon misses that seemingly-easy-to-hit mark. I browned a few pieces following the directions, then layered them with avocado, tomato, and vegannaise on potato bread. It certainly looked pretty, but once it came time to chow down we found the tempeh bacon a lot less than crispy and pretty tasteless. I probably could improve the texture by browning longer, but the thick cut of the "bacon" will make that difficult. And the added time still won't help the flavor.

All in all, the tempeh bacon turned out to be a B.A.T. fail ... Guess it's back to the LightLife next time. Unless anyone out there has better suggestions for good vegan bacon?